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> Much of the HN codebase consists of anti-abuse measures that would stop working if people knew about them. Unfortunately. separating out the secret parts woul
by AndrewKemendo 1y ago
> Much of the HN codebase consists of anti-abuse measures that would stop working if people knew about them. Unfortunately. separating out the secret parts would by now be a lot of work
The business logic in encoded into the original structure, making migration to anything different effectively impossible - without some massive redesign.
This, I think more than any response, indicates why the philosophy of “it’s working don’t touch it” will always win and new features” requests will be rejected.
HN didn’t depaginate based on user desires, it was based on internal tooling making that feature available within the context of the HN overall structure.
HN has zero financial or structural incentive to do anything but change as little as possible. That’s why this place, unique in the internet at this point unfortunately has lasted.
HN is not *trying* to grow, it’s trying to do as little as possible while staying alive; so by default, it’s more coherent to maintain because its structure isn’t built for it and changing the structure would break the encoded rituals (anti-abuse measures).
Something to think about when you’re trying to solve for many problems like “legacy code” “scaling needs” etc… it all comes back to baseline incentives
- exe34 1y agoHonestly I don't understand why more things aren't like this. I don't need a revamped landing page for my GP/council/department/directorate/organisation/etc - just finish the previous version with the features that were promised. I don't need another half-assed version that will also be abandoned at 40-50%.
- AndrewKemendo 1y agoBusiness incentives HN is odd in that it’s subsidized by a hyper capitalist who still has at least a romantic concept of the “early” internet My assumption is that HN will die when the current leadership turns over because while HN does help marketing/intel for YC it’s a cost center All cost centers eventually get closed
- exe34 1y ago> All cost centers eventually get closed This needs to be the epitaph of humanity. I propose we start a crowd fund to get it carved in big letters on the moon!
- packetlost 1y agoMan, I wish GUIs in general were like this. Not that I don't want progress, but some interactions (especially in basic OS stuff) really doesn't need to be redone every 5 years.
- walterbell 1y agoMuscle memory belongs on a balance sheet.
- dang 1y agoIt's trying to grow in the sense that we want new users. Otherwise it will get stale. I fear that's already happening.
- mdaniel 1y agoI mean this in the spirit of genuine curiosity: what staleness risk is there given the massive breadth of experience the existing userbase already has?
- dang 1y agoWe need a healthy influx of younger users in addition to retaining older ones.
- jaza 1y agoIt remains an unsolved problem! For example, Facebook's "solution" was to buy Instagram.
- computerthings 1y ago[dead]
- walterbell 1y ago> staleness risk Mortality.
- dang 1y agoIndeed.
- ashwinsundar 1y agoIs there data or otherwise that HN is growing stale? Or more of a general vibe